Dark Horse joins Comixology, hype quickly deflated.

And this is how Dark Horse joins Comixology…not with a bang, but a whimper.

The hype train began on Friday when mysteriously and unexpectedly, Comixology simultaneously sent out a cryptic tweet saying just “Coming Soon” (accompanied by a video of Hellboy’s watch ticking on his arm) and launched a countdown site counting to 9 AM Pacific this morning.

Today the clock hit 9 AM and the “magic happened”. Well, at least it did if you like being underwhelmed.

Like Hellboy? Hope so, there is a shitload of him to read.

There are a couple of main problems with Dark Horse joining Comixology…one I sorta expected, and one that is a mind numbingly stupid move.

–They are not adding any way to sync the titles you previously purchased directly from Dark Horse into your Comixology account.
I have to say that I thought this was a long shot anyway, but it is disappointing to see that they didn’t figure out some way to do it. Comixology’s platform is (imo) a much superior reading experience to DH’s, and it sucks that my previously purchased titles are locked to the lesser app of the two.
When asked about it, Comixology said that “This was not possible now, but they would pass it on.” That was a little more optimistic than Dark Horse’s “This is not possible.”

But this move makes more sense when you realize the second thing they did, which is a complete head scratcher…

–Dark Horse is only putting their trade paperbacks, stand alone graphic novels and manga on Comixology.
Yes, you read that right. You can read it directly from their press release if you find it hard to believe. I know I did.
Yes, Dark Horse’s much hyped appearance on Comixology’s platform will exclude all single issues from their catalog, limiting your purchasing options.

This announcement, when it was teased last week, lit the digital comic world on fire. Hell, I was hyped as fuck as well, but the actual launch today has completely taken that hype down to almost nothing.

If you’ve never bought a DH comic digitally and you love Trade Paperbacks, this will be right up your alley. Existing DH customers who buy individual issues? Yeah, this won’t be for you.